EveryMatrix Leaves the United Kingdom After License Suspension

September 26, 2019September 26, 2019
by Casino.zone

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EveryMatrix Leaves the United Kingdom After License Suspension

EveryMatrix had their B2C license suspended by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission earlier this month, and now the company has responded by pulling out of the jurisdiction completely and focusing on their B2B offerings, the license for which was not suspended in this action.

EveryMatrix Changes Strategies in Face of Difficulties

It’s not been a good month for EveryMatrix. Earlier this month, they had their license pulled for what is known as their white label sites, which are online casinos they operated with a United Kingdom license.

The specific reasons for this license being pulled have not been made public, but we do know it was for customer interaction compliance and not for any safety, security or financial issue.

What customer interaction compliance includes are things like monitoring players for signs that they may have issues with problem gambling, which has been the number one thing that fines and suspensions have been handed out for over the past few years by the UKGC to operators.

In response to this, EveryMatrix has made the tough decision to completely pull out of the market and to focus on their B2B offerings in the United Kingdom instead, which are generally seen to be the larger part of their business.

The Rare License Suspension

Something really worth pointing out here is that there has been a history of major fines, even in the seven- and eight-figure range, to operators who have not met the incredibly strict guidelines that have been referred to in the above regarding customer interaction.

Their KYC or “know your customer” guidelines in particular have been the thing that has gotten so many operators in trouble with the UKGC along these lines.

However, virtually all of those operators received major fines without license suspensions. Now, EveryMatrix, who is definitely a major player in the industry as a whole in multiple sectors, had their license suspended for the same kind of thing.

Some people might immediately assume that this must be because what they did was so much worse, but that’s not really the case. Instead, what’s been happening is a political shift where regulators in the United Kingdom have been severely under fire in the past several months for not being harsh enough with their punishments on this sort of thing. In response, we get this kind of license suspension, which has virtually ruined the white label business of one of the most trusted software names in the online gambling world.

Why Leave the UK?

EveryMatrix cited that their reputation on the white label side has been virtually destroyed and has no chance of coming back with this suspension. A big part of that is that they are no longer able to take new bets, which completely disrupts the player experience and will make them lose a significant portion of their player base at the least.

Instead, they’re deciding to let the white label side go and focus exclusively on the B2B end of things for the UK market since that license was not affected by any of this. The software side is often seen as their “bread and butter” anyway, so it’s not like the company is going to go under as a result of all of this, but it’s definitely not a good thing either.

What to Expect From Here

Regulators in the United Kingdom have definitely sent a major message with this license suspension and with the aftermath of EveryMatrix leaving the B2C market completely. As a result, we expect to see companies there tightening things up when it comes to the “know your customer” rules and policies, and we might even see more suspensions along these lines for any companies that get caught slipping in this regard.

In any event, things are definitely shifting a bit politically in the United Kingdom right now in terms of how their regulation of the online gambling industry is handled, and we doubt that this will be the only major change that we see in the near future.